Ralphs mural shows even good ol' days could get crowded

Aug. 2, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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This photo on the side of a new San Clemente Ralphs store shows that in 1940, the Pier Bowl area had one-way traffic and could get really crowded. The San Clemente Historical Society donated the photo for a mural that helps decorate the new store on South El Camino Real. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Three murals commemorating San Clemente's "Spanish village" heritage decorate a wall at Ralphs' new $9 million supermarket at 903 S. El Camino Real in San Clemente. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Grocery shoppers in southwest San Clemente may find it easier to exit the parking lot at an expanded Ralphs store than it was at the former store, which had a single lane at the traffic signal. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Window cleaning was part of the final touches Thursday in preparation for Friday's opening of San Clemente's expanded Ralphs store on South El Camino Real. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Shopping carts are rolled in before Friday's opening of an expanded Ralphs store in San Clemente. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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For decades, the space at right was a strip mall. Those stores were removed to make way for more parking to accommodate the bigger Ralphs supermarket in southwest San Clemente. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Arches at Ralphs' new San Clemente store get a final dab of paint Thursday. The supermarket opens at 8 a.m. Friday. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

This photo on the side of a new San Clemente Ralphs store shows that in 1940, the Pier Bowl area had one-way traffic and could get really crowded. The San Clemente Historical Society donated the photo for a mural that helps decorate the new store on South El Camino Real.FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

So you think San Clemente's Pier Bowl area gets congested with tourists today?

One of three tile murals decorating an expanded Ralphs store scheduled to open Friday reveals that in 1940, San Clemente's pier and beach were so popular that the adjacent street had one-way circulation and still was jammed with cars.

If the one-way traffic on Avenida Victoria comes as a surprise, the mural also reveals there was no Beachcomber Motel, a row of single-story Spanish-style cottages that today sit prominently along the bluff. The cottages came at the end of World War II.

Also, a landmark Spanish-style mansion appears in the picture, atop a coastal bluff. The mansion, known as the Bartow home, was demolished in the 1970s to make way for condominiums.

The San Clemente Historical Society donated the artwork for three tile murals that decorate the new supermarket at 903 S. El Camino Real. The murals hark back to a time when San Clemente had its own sportfishing fleet at the pier, giving it a major tourist draw that went away when Dana Point Harbor opened in 1971.

Michael Kaupp, a San Clemente planning commissioner, coordinated the mural project and said Thursday that the three murals will look much nicer in a month or so when the photographs in place now are replaced with tiles that will create the same images. The tiles are being made, and when it became evident they wouldn't be ready for this week's store opening, Ralphs "went to extra trouble to have these printed," Kaupp said.

The new 28,322-square-foot Ralphs opens at 8 a.m. Friday after more than seven months of construction, during which residents of southwest San Clemente had to drive across town for supermarket shopping. The new store replaces a 19,500-square-foot store that had been there since 1963.

On Thursday, final touches were being applied inside and out for a grand-opening celebration Friday that will include drawings for two iPads, plus other promotions.

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